February 12, 2015

Pakistan is unfriendly towards India and Afghanistan, and it doesn't hide its support for Jihadist terrorists anymore. It is proud of poking their eyes, thinking it is so tough and mighty. But it will complain all day long when the two team up and direct their combined fury towards it. It is insecure yet overconfident, recklessly giving terrorist groups protection. It is a destabilizing state that is running around in circles with no vision for building peace in its own country and in its region. Relying on nuclear weapons, foreign aid, and Saudi-financed Jihad for defence is stupid.

You can even imagine that the bigger and mightier India gets someone here will be thinking, the bigger they are the harder they fall. They may even cheer India on to grow bigger. Makes for a fatter target and a more satisfying blow.

Ah, but that’s crazy, you’re thinking. The Kashmir policy has been a disaster. We’re no closer to a settlement. We’ve failed to internationalise the dispute. Nobody likes us, everyone thinks we’re trouble. It’s not just unwise it’s self-defeating.

Not really. In a certain world, from a certain perspective, it makes total sense. Don’t think about it being just about Kashmir. The anti-India jihad complex is leverage in the broader Pak-India relationship.

It is the one instrument that Pakistan has that drives Indians crazy, keeps them up at night and to which they have no response. No response that Pakistan can’t absorb and is unwilling to absorb.

Why the hell would you give that up against Enemy No 1? Why the hell would you change a winning strategy?

Switch to Afghanistan. It worked. The strategy. The damn thing has worked. It’s almost beautiful.

To begin with, we hung on to both our allies: the Afghan Taliban and the Americans. That’s quite something if you think about it. They fought each other for 13 years and we directly helped both sides and both of them are still somehow grateful to us. The Americans keep giving us billions, Mullah Omar keeps shouting down militant violence inside Pakistan — it’s bloody brilliant.

And now, 13 years later, if Afghanistan unravels, Pakistan and its Taliban buddies will be there to pick up the pieces and the world will disapprove but not really do anything about it because, well, they had 13 years and they screwed up. And even if Afghanistan doesn’t unravel, Pakistan has managed to remain the arbiter of Afghanistan’s security without so much as having to pick up the tab. Thank you, US and India and your fat chequebooks. Suckers.

Which brings us back to the mosque-madressah-social welfare network. It’s a problem, sure. But it’s also a vital resource: without it you’d have no India or Afghan policy.
Because to have an anti-India jihad, you need jihadists. And to produce jihadists you need an extremist mosque-madressah-social welfare network.

Defense Minister of Pakistan, Khawaja Asif. He explains that Pakistan is at the forefront of the war on terror, that the government is determined not to negotiate anymore with the Taliban but instead fight them both in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. He casts doubts on the intentions of the Indian leadership and warns India that Pakistan is ready to respond militarily if need be. He also calls on Europe to avoid inflaming the situation through caricatures of the Prophet.